Crawler transports rockets to pad; Will carry new system

The vehicle that transports rockets to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral has been refurbished.

NASA's newly upgraded crawler-transporter, a giant vehicle as wide as a six-lane highway, took its first test drive Wednesday.

NASA has two of the tractor-like crawlers. They have been hauling Saturn-5 rockets and space shuttles for almost 50 years.

After a $50 million overhaul, the second crawler has taken a giant step toward readiness to carry NASA's planned Space Launch System, a 14 million-pound super rocket larger than anything ever launched.

The crawler is scheduled to haul the giant rocket to its launch pad in 2017 for a test launch.